Opinion: City’s unrealistic plan for College Area ignores community input

An aerial view of the College Area Photo courtesy of the city In in anticipation of the city s upcoming College Area Public Plan update the College Area Group Planning Board started to develop its own community-driven -year upsurge strategy The planning board deduced that if it could show where to place new housing density that hit similar increase targets approved for other San Diego communities the city would give strong consideration to its plan After a year of meetings and working groups the board s finished plan called for creation of an urban village around San Diego State University adjacent to the campus trolley station It envisioned high-density housing along College Avenue Montezuma Road and other major thoroughfares with access to the existing bus system The plan anticipated adding approximately dwelling units to the current units more and increasing the area s population by from to These increases are in line with of late approved district plan updates for Mira Mesa Hillcrest and Clairemont In the City Planning Department started its formal multi-year College Area Locality Plan Update After an open house and initial comment period the department put forth four plan alternatives wholly ignoring College Area Population Planning Board s earlier effort The city s current version of the public plan update calls for increasing the College Area s population by nearly from to over people with no major infrastructure improvements The document glosses over the fact that a multitude of College Area neighborhoods are surrounded by canyons that are designated very high exposure fire zones with limited evacuation routes The city s logic seems to be that heavy density in areas of high fire danger is a way to mitigate that liability This plan is an exercise in upzoning large portions of the College Area leaving it to investors and developers to decide what gets built when and where This is not strategic planning but an ad hoc approach in arena planning However it will be taxpayers who will be left with the bill to fix the aftermath One thing the bulk people do agree on is that SDSU is the center of the College Area region and impacts almost everything that happens in the area Knowing that it s incredible that the city didn t include or couldn t bring SDSU into the planning process beyond perfunctory meeting attendance None of the population projections include anything SDSU has planned for its campus This begs the question how can the city create a longer-term group plan without the collaboration of the largest area employer that houses and feeds thousands of students on campus brings thousands of vehicles into and out of the neighborhood on a daily basis and has a major transit hub on campus If that isn t bad enough the Metropolitan Transit System the agency that operates the trolley and buses that will be tasked with moving a great number of of these people was not involved either This is leadership dysfunction at its worst By not accounting for what SDSU does on its campus the city s plan cannot accurately project infrastructure requirements for parks roads police and fire And who will cover those costs As of now SDSU is in the first phase of the Evolve participant housing project at the northern end of campus three-quarters of a mile away from the campus trolley station in a very high exposure fire zone with no pedestrian mobility plan for more than residents If the city SDSU and MTS along with the College Area Neighborhood Planning Board were working together and leveraging hundreds of millions of dollars in state money SDSU would scale back its Evolve project in its current location and move a large portion of that candidate housing to the asphalt parking lots along College Avenue adjacent to the trolley station This would accelerate the creation of an urban village that the city says it wants and the greater part people backing In recent times the state legislature passed Senate Bill which is expected to be signed by the governor It calls for high density housing within a quarter mile of mass transit stations With SDSU being a state university this is another reason to place high density aspirant housing in that location and include the impact this new law will have in the plan update Unfortunately the city has decided to sprint to the finish line with its half-baked plan with the hope the City Planning Commission will approve it on Oct so that the City Council can give its blessing in December It s time for city to pull back from its current plan update and work with the College Area Society Planning Board SDSU and MTS to create a realistic vibrant and workable vision for the College Area for the present day and the next morning Robert Montana is chair of the College Area Society Planning Board Rene Kaprielian is a long-time resident of the College Area